Calm before the Storm
by Soccus
Summary: Starscream looks at the mighty Galvatron and laughs. G1, Oneshot, no pairings.


AN: A little bunny that formed while reading some of Dragoness Eclectic's fanfics.

Not one of my best works but still, hope you guys like it.

Warning for character death and mentions of torture. Not that many people like this character, but oh well, still had to warn for it.

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro and I am using the characters without permission. I am not making profit from this work.

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Catcalls and jeering came from the sidelines as the Decepticons' former Second-In-Command was dragged in front of their leader. It wasn't hard to see why they wouldn't mock him; disapproval of Starscream automatically meant approval of their leader.

It certainly explained why the Combaticons were being some of the loudest, their history with Starscream being known to all and sundry.

Rather unusually there was no reaction from the Seeker. That might have been because he was slagged to the pits and back, wings crumpled, cockpit broken and his Null-Rays had been ripped right off. His face couldn't be seen from the way his head was slumped downwards. However being slagged had never stopped Starscream's big mouth before, whether it was for insulting, mocking, betraying or begging. Their previous leader had known that. He'd also known that a quiet Starscream was a dangerous Starscream. The quieter he was, the more deadly whatever was to come would be.

Megatron had had lines of coding, developed from long exposure to Starscream, to warn him when his SIC was being too quiet. They had saved his life from plots that the majority of his army had never seen, so well-hidden and entirely unconnected to Starscream as they were.

Galvatron had no such coding. Unicron had seen quite a lot of Megatron's adaptive coding as entirely useless; the Chaos Bringer had needed a servant who would obey him, not one who could adapt and eventually betray him.

Since Galvatron had managed to betray Unicron anyway, mostly through sheer stubbornness, removing the coding had been one of Unicron's most stupid, or clever actions ever undertaken, depending entirely from which side you saw the situation.

Thus, Galvatron missed the first sign that Something Was Up.

There was, of course, at least one person present who could have warned him. Soundwave had seen many of Starscream's plots and had survived just as many, if not more, than Megatron. Therefore Soundwave definitely knew what a Dangerous Starscream plot looked like and he knew he was facing one now.

Soundwave _would_ have alerted Megatron, but there wasn't any Megatron anymore. Soundwave had respected the power Megatron had wielded, not just the physical power but also his mental power, his powers to corrupt and manipulate. Galvatron, on the other hand, was just a tad too crazy for Soundwave's tastes. Whilst Megatron had been somewhat of a manipulator, Soundwave had been an even better one and had "managed" his old leader. Madness could not be "managed".

Besides, Soundwave did not like being usurped by a rebuilt Skywarp as his lord's favourite, no thank you.

The alert would not come for Galvatron; Soundwave would watch and see what would happen.

Soundwave knew that Starscream knew that Soundwave would recognise a plot of his.

Starscream had probably been observing them for quite a while, waiting for the right moment to strike. He would have seen Soundwave's dissatisfaction at no longer being the favourite, the power behind the throne, and would have banked on Soundwave's tendency to sit out the action.

Starscream was unusually good at betting.

Galvatron stood up from his throne and strode towards the Seeker who was being held between two Sweeps. Galvatron was going to play one of his _favourite_ games with this traitor. Cyclonus and Scourge moved from their places beside the throne to stand behind the traitor.

Galvatron began his little speech.

"Decepticons, today we have before us one of the most notorious traitors of the Decepticon cause, the _legendarily_ incompetent Starscream." Galvatron grinned at the Decepticons around the room and there were a few answering laughs.

Starscream said nothing.

"Now, the usual treatment for traitors would be immediate execution, however I _am_ feeling lenient today. I am going to give dear Starscream here a choice; either we rip off his wings and chain him to a corner in this room, to be forever dependent on the goodwill of any Decepticon who would _feed_ him their own rations, or we melt him limb by limb. What shall it be Starscream?"

There was a long silence after that.

Finally, Starscream looked up at Galvatron. His usual insufferable smirk was pasted across his faceplates; his injuries didn't seem to bother him. Nor did the cannon that had shifted to face straight at his chestplates. At least he was playing along now.

Galvatron decided to honour one of the old traditions of his previous life. The usual traitor/leader diatribe.

"Well, Starscream?" He said mockingly.

Starscream's grin only split open wider and turned crooked.

Galvatron quickly lost patience with the continuing silence –he liked his victims loud and Starscream promised to be the loudest of them all- and gave Cyclonus a nod. Said bot lashed his electro-whip across Starscream's back and wings three times before Galvatron held up a servo.

"Well, Starscream?" He asked again.

Starscream reacted by laughing. He laughed in the face of the cannon in front of him, laughed at the mockery of a leader who stood in front of him, the leader who was –as humans put it- _ripe for the plucking_. Or was it picking?

Galvatron was startled by the sudden, mad laughter. Never in any of his memories had Starscream sounded _quite _like that. Not even –and he checked his memory banks twice- during the infamous Bruticus incident.

Around him, Decepticons started shuffling their feet; their leader was unnerved and so they were unnerved. Galvatron forced himself to look less… antsy.

"What is the meaning of this behaviour Starscream? Have you lost what little of your senses remain?" He meant to provoke Starscream into talking, maybe bring about one of the long, idiotic monologues the Seeker was famous for. Then he would make the choice for the Seeker. Whichever death was slower and more painful would do.

The laughter stopped and all that was left was a Seeker with a crooked smile.

"You're going to die, _mighty Galvatron_."

He never saw it coming.

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AN: And there you have it. This is a standalone oneshot and there will hopefully be no sequels. Unless the bunnies bite me.

Anyways, review please.

Eli


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